Do your work justice with a well-designed, professional conference talk
Deliver a talk so good that attendees can’t help but approach you to tell you “That was the best talk I’ve ever seen!”
1,000+ individuals in STEM, academia, and evaluation have taken my professional development training online course, training workshop, or worked with me 1:1.
Additional reviews and testimonials can be found in my LinkedIn profile.
Hi! I’m Dr. Echo Rivera 👋
Conference talks are your chance to make a good impression in your discipline.
An impressive, visually engaging conference talk:
Helps you build more confidence in your public speaking skills (audience praise = major confidence boost!).
Makes networking easy (because people will approach YOU already wanting to connect).
Helps do your work justice by making a stronger impact (more views on your article —> more citations —> more people incorporating your work into theirs).
Working with a presentation specialist (who has a PhD and has given academic/research conference talks) will calm those nerves so you can deliver a talk with professional, impressive slides that you’re proud of (and are so good can use them again for yet another conference or invited talk 😉).
The “Last Lap” Session
You’re almost there! I’ll help get you across the finish line 🏁
90-minutes together on Zoom
90-minutes of my review/design time before our session (I will review/edit your draft slide deck)
$600 for 3 hours of support
Perfect if you:
Already have* ~ 60% or more of your conference talk slide deck drafted; AND either:
You just need some help with refining some tricky parts of your script or sprucing up some slides / data visualizations; OR…
You need help deciding on what to include in the rest of your conference talk.
*or will have by the time we meet.
The “It’s OK to Stop Running” Package
You have other things to do. I’ll handle the design for you 💅
I create or overhaul your slides and data visualizations (quant & qual ok)
Most conference talks can be completed within 2 days of work (additional hours can be purchased)
~2-4 weeks turnaround time (shorter timeframes may be ok)
Exact price depends on length & complexity, but you’ll always know what to expect before we begin
$1,600 - $3,200 for a ready-to-go conference talk
Perfect if you:
Are giving a talk that is 45 minutes or less; AND either:
Have a written script (word for word what you want to say), and want me to create the slide deck from that; OR…
Have a complete draft of the slide deck, but want an overhaul on the designs and data visualizations.
How we will approach your conference talks
Stand out among the sea of other presenters so you can expand your network.
The primary goal for a conference talk is about building your network and reputation.
This is quite different than what most people assume a conference talk is for. Many of my clients initially approach a conference talk thinking it’s about:
Proving the quality of your study.
Establishing yourself as a competent researcher/academic/professional.
Getting feedback about your study from peers to improve it.
There’s nothing wrong with these, but these are pretty blah as ultimate outcomes. What good do those do for your career, really?
Here’s what a conference is REALLY about:
Getting your research out there so more people read, use, and cite it.
Finding your people — future collaborators, people doing similar work (who would be better at giving feedback anyway).
Gaining practice with effective communication and public speaking in an academic setting.
Being competent is not what will ultimately motivate people into wanting to network or collaborate with you. If you want to network using your conference talk, you need to signal to the audience that you’re someone they would enjoy talking to and working with.
For example, when I was just a grad student, a professor I already respected and cited approached me after my talk, complimented the slide design, and invited me to to write a chapter in a book she was working on!
If the idea of networking makes you want to wretch, you’re not alone. But sadly, a strong network is the not-so-hidden secret to success in literally any career. Rather than avoid networking, you can use your conference talk as an opportunity to make networking easier.
The average conference attendee is on the struggle bus.
We’re presenting to an exhausted, jet-lagged audience of professionals who have a million responsibilities they’re juggling.
They’re guaranteed to be at least one of these during your talk:
hungry (likely due to the abysmal box lunches and burned Starbucks latte),
overstimulated (too much noise, and omg the lights), and
stressed over how behind they’re getting at work, about their own talk at the conference, how things are going at home, how much this conference is costing them, etc etc…
That means your conference talk attendees are typically more in “scanning” mode rather than in “deep learning” mode—especially if they’ve already taken a pre-conference workshop and spent their last burst of energy on that.
That also means anyone who gives a conference talk using the Standard Academic Delivery (SAD) style of presenting is going to lose them. If they have to fight just to stay awake during your talk, then all they’re going to do when it’s over is zombie-walk into the next session.
Audience-friendly, visually-engaging, well-polished talks will be the breath of fresh air they need.
What that also means is anyone who gives a conference talk that is unlike anything other speakers are doing (AKA a visually-engaging, accessible, and interesting talk)…
…well.
That speaker is going to be the breath of fresh air that reminds them why they came to this conference in the first place.
Now, we don’t need to change the conference talk formula. We typically use a standard structure that people expect:
introduction/literature review,
research questions/hypotheses,
method,
results,
discussion/implications/limitations
But what we shift is the slide design. Specifically, we shift from the SAD (Standard Academic Delivery) style of presenting information into a visually-engaging, well-polished talk.
We shift from slides that are boring and forgettable into slides that are so good people can’t help but approach you to tell you how good your talk was. We don’t need to reach the level of design that’s needed for something like a keynote or a job talk, but we still want them to be impressive and impactful.
When people approach you already impressed by both your work and communication skills…that’s 90% of the networking, done. All you have to do is graciously accept the compliment, and follow up with “Tell me more about your research” and “Let’s stay connected.”
Dr. Selameab was burned out and had a lot on her plate, but she needed to get her dissertation slides done, fast.
See what we accomplished in just one intensive.
Want to see me redesign a few presentation slides?
This 10 minute makeover video shows some before/after redesigns. Every client is different, but we should have no problem doing something of this scope (and likely even more) during just one session together.
My slide portfolio has more examples of visually engaging presentation slides for academic settings.
Ready to work together?
Let’s make sure you can deliver a strong conference talk with confidence.
…or…have a question first?
Book a no pressure call or send me a quick email using this form.
